Moose O'Malley's Software Valley Established : July 1996 Please bookmark this location only : http://move.to/moose

In 1989-1990, I purchased a book called the Hercules Text, which was on a "4 books for a dollar" sale at a bookshop in Melbourne, Australia. Well, the other 3 books I got were pretty crappy, but the Hercules Text turned out to be a real surprise. I really enjoyed reading it.

In fact, I liked it so much that I rate this book as being the best book I have ever read !!

The book is essentially a Sci-Fi novel, but it is also much more than that.

As a general rule, I like Science Fiction. The trouble is that most Sci-Fi books, in my opinion, are really shallow, especially in their characterisations and human interactions.

But this book is strong in all of these areas.

So what's the book all about ? Well, below is a summary of the story.

The book is about earth receiving a signal from an Alien civilisation. No aliens actually land on earth, and they are too far for anyone from earth to ever meet. But this "signal" has an amazing and profound impact on earth, and it very nearly starts World War 3.

The USA are they only ones who receive the signal. They happened to have satellites in the right position and were monitoring at the right time to receive and record the very faint message. All in all, about 100 MegaBytes of data are recorded into what the book calls Alien Data Sets.

A team of prominent American scientists is then quickly assembled, who then set about trying to decode the Alien signal.

How would Aliens transmit a message so that it could be decoded by other suitably intelligent life-forms ?

How can the scientists crack their code ?

What does the message say ?

Offcourse the message is declared to be top secret, because it might contain dangerous information. So, the American government put the message under tight security.

What if something in the Alien's signal criticises Islam or one of the other religions that people take so seriously ? (Just look at history to see the wars and conflicts that have occurred because of religion !)

What if it contains something that proves there is No God ?

What if it contains something that proves there really is a God ?

What if it confirms that "Garden of Eden" story is true, and that the Alien's had not failed the temptation test ? How would they react to us humans as failed beings ?

What if the Son of God had died for the Aliens to redeem them as well ? Would we continue to place this event in such high esteem ? How would our attitude to God change if He allowed His son to die in order to redeem countless other life-forms ? Wouldn't this Supreme Act be watered down somewhat ? What if we are the only life-form that needed to be redeemed ?

What if it contains knowledge about advanced technology ?

What if that knowledge can be used for weapons ?

In order to determine the answers to these questions, the scientists must decode these Alien Data Sets as soon as possible. The scientists start working all hours of the day to decode the signal.

And, as you would expect, other people soon find out about the Alien's signal, news reports are shown on television about the Alien's signal, and suddenly everyone on the planet is demanding for the public release of the Alien Data Sets - even before they have been decoded.

The Russians eventually get to the point that they say to America "give us a copy of the signal or we'll nuke you !!"

While the scientists work to decode the message, they are aware of the rapidly rising tension in the outside world, and the of the tidal wave of war that could break across the world at any moment.

So, a critical race against time is well and truly on. The Americans have to decode the signal and use the technology they discover to try and build a defence against a Russian nuclear attack, and then to try to restore world peace.

At the same time, the scientists working on the project face a harsh moral dilemma. The information they are decoding could be used to end the world and extinguish the human race. The scientists have heated debates - and they soon realise 2 things :

1. no-one has ever developed a new weapon (in the history of the human race) and been able to hold onto the secrets of the new weapon for very long. The scientists do not want advanced weapons falling into the hands of lunatics, but they realise it would be impossible to prevent this.
2. the scientists who developed Nuclear Power and Weapons were so close to the project, that they did not realise the terrible impact they would have on the human race. The scientists fully realise that what they discover at lunch-time could lead to the annihilation of the entire human race by tea-time.

As it turns out, the Data Sets contain the total of all knowledge of the Alien race. As the scientists gradually discover how to decode the signal, they are able to confirm various rules and laws in human mathematics, physics and chemistry.

However, they soon surpass the bounds of human knowledge, and start to learn new knowledge that could be used to create new space ships, medicine that will help us live for hundreds of years, or incredibly deadly weapons, such as the ability to create Black Holes in the middle of a populated city.

But, couldn't the scientists just use the information in the Alien Data Sets that would be beneficial to the human race and ignore the rest ?

Well the scientists agree to try and determine what information is completely safe, and release only this information to the government.

The problem is how to determine what information is completely safe. For example, knowledge that could provide virtually infinite energy for the world's population could also be used to make horrendous weapons. Also, medical knowledge that could be used to eradicate disease could also be used to manufacture viruses that could eradicate life on earth.

The scientists come to the realisation that information is power and that power must be very carefully controlled.

The scientists also realise that the new knowledge they possess is making them a serious liability to the human race.

So, at the end of a tortuous debate the scientists decide that there is only one course of action open to them : all recordings of the Alien Data Sets must be destroyed and it must be done very quickly, before anything else is discovered.

The scientists declare that the human race is not ready for the knowledge, as any knowledge learned from the Alien Data Sets could be misused, and that (based on history) humans cannot be trusted. So, a covert operation is mounted by the scientists to erase and destroy all copies of the Alien data sets - including all back-up copies.

I don't want to spoil the book for you (if you ever read it), but one scientist (Ed Gambini) wants to preserve one copy of the information. But, how could he hide the information ? And who or what could he trust to keep the information secret for 1,000's of years until the human race is ready to use the new knowledge properly ?

But, the government quickly realise that all known Alien Data Sets have been erased, and try to recover the hidden Data Set to so they can continue decoding it. Meanwhile, the rest of the world are out to retrieve the information and release it to the world. And the other scientists (on the project) are out to destroy the last remaining copy of the Data Sets.

When you read the book, you will be shocked at what happens here.

The way the story unfolds is quite enthralling.

Unlike other Sci-Fi books I have read, this book is more about people and about human nature, than about science or aliens, and it is more about the incredible impact technology is having on our lives.

The book has very strong characterisations. In amongst all of the above problems, there are profound human conflicts occurring in the background. We see the cycle of life being played out. Old but brilliant scientists are finding themselves to be not as mentally agile as they once were, and watch themselves being overtaken by the younger scientists. One Scientist in particular, Gambini, has always had a passion to find proof of Alien Life, and because of this the other scientists are initially more sceptical than they should be that the message is indeed from Aliens. Scientists from different backgrounds and disciplines are in constant conflict about what the data means, what to release to the world, and what to censor. And the scientists are in constant conflict with the US Government (who want all of the knowledge - not just the censored knowledge), and with the rest of the world, who demand the public release of the uncensored data sets.

The book also shows that Aliens do not have to land upon earth for them to have an enormous impact on all of our lives.

It also helps the reader understand why various governments are so secretive about UFO information.

There are a few very minor faults with this book. For example, the sum total of all Alien knowledge takes up just 100 MB of storage space. Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia (which contains a very minute fraction of all human knowledge) required 650 MB.

It is obvious that this Alien knowledge was not written down by a Lawyer !! (In the EEC, the regulations for Irish Sausage Meat took 80,000 words to define ! Proving, yet again, that if you want to make things infinitely more complex than they really are, just employ a Lawyer !)

Apart from a few minor faults, the book is an excellent read.

The sad news about this book is that I lent the book to a friend about 6 months ago, and they lost it !!

If anyone knows where I can buy another copy, please let me know.

Book Summary :

Name :	The Hercules Text
Author :	Jack McDevitt
Number of Pages :	250 ??
Recommended Retail Price :	$9.95 Aus ??
First Published :	??
ISBN Number :	0-44-137367-4

Moose's Rating : 9.5 / 10

The above review is Copyright © Moose O'Malley, October 13, 1996.

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